Front door installation in Batumi: replacing the developer's door

The developer's door: upgrade it or replace it

With white frame, the developer often hands the apartment over with a steel front door; with black frame the door may be a temporary one. Quite often it is a door meant only for the construction period: thin sheet, a hollow leaf, a single lock, a frame held in by foam with no anchors. So when we install a new front door, we start by inspecting the old one.

We decide after the inspection. If the frame is firmly fixed and the leaf doesn't flex under your hand, we keep the door and upgrade it: a new cylinder, an armoured cylinder guard, a second line of seals. If the frame is loose and the leaf is hollow, upgrading it will cost more than a new door. What else the developer hands over along with the door is covered on the page about white frame renovation.

The building's rules: the outside look and the installation day

On the outside, a front door faces the shared corridor, and in new builds the management company often sets one look for all the doors on a floor: the colour, the outer panel, the handle. Every building has its own requirements, so we ask for them before ordering. The inside face and the locks are your choice.

Taking out the old frame is noisy, so it is done in the hours allowed by law and by the building's rules. We agree the delivery and the service lift with reception, cover the lift car and the corridor floor with boards, and take the waste away the same day.

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The wool in the leaf and the seals around it muffle the lift and the voices in the corridor. If the lift shaft is behind the hallway wall, a door alone is not enough: the wall is lined separately, as in wall and ceiling soundproofing.

Measuring the opening and the floor level

We measure the opening with the old door's architraves and reveals taken off: underneath there is often a hand's width of foam, or brick laid in during construction. We record the width and height at several points, the wall thickness and the material around the opening. If a factory-made door won't fit the opening, it is made to measure.

We set the bottom of the frame to the finished floor level in the hallway. Until it is decided whether porcelain tiles on adhesive or SPC vinyl will go there, the threshold height is guesswork, and the leaf later has to be trimmed. After installation we finish the reveals along with the hallway walls and floor. We widen an opening in the wall to the shared corridor only with the management company's consent, and we don't touch a concrete wall without a structural engineer's calculations.

How we install a front door

• we cover the corridor floor, take out the old door and clean the opening of foam and mortar;
• we set the frame on wedges, level it and check the diagonals so that the leaf doesn't rub;
• we fix the frame with anchors: in our practice three or four per side, with the fixings chosen for the wall material;
• we fill the gap with foam, leaving no voids, and cover the foam: with a reveal on the inside and an architrave on the outside;
• we hang the leaf, adjust the closing pressure and check that the bolts go into the strike plates without anyone pushing on the door.

While the renovation is under way, the new door has a construction cylinder in it, and the leaf is covered with film and cardboard. The permanent cylinder goes in on handover day, straight from its sealed pack. If you are running a renovation from abroad, we hand its keys to you or to the person you name, against a signed certificate.

A code lock for a rental apartment

For short-term letting, an electronic lock is usually fitted to the front door. Some models replace the whole mortice mechanism and don't fit every leaf, so we choose the model before the door is bought. How to pick one for check-in without meeting the guest is covered on the page about preparing an apartment for short-term rental.

How much front door installation costs in Batumi

A factory-made steel front door, installed, costs from 1,580 to 2,580 ₾. The price covers the door itself and the installation: the frame on anchors, filling the gap, hanging and adjusting the leaf. If you have bought the door yourself, fitting it costs 140–180 ₾. A made-to-measure door for a non-standard opening comes to 4,320–7,200 ₾.

A high-security lock, 420–600 ₾, and reveal finishing, 130–215 ₾ per linear metre, are separate lines. A smart lock, installed, costs 780–1,200 ₾. A non-standard opening, a door with insulation and a thermal break, and a building requirement to match the outer panel of the neighbouring doors all cost more; a standard door in a straight opening costs least. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.

What to check when you accept the door

• the door closes with one hand, without a jerk, and doesn't bounce back off the frame;
• the seal is pressed all the way round: a sheet of paper caught in the closed door pulls out with the same effort at the top, the side and the bottom;
• both locks lock with the door closed, without having to pull the leaf towards you or push it with your shoulder;
• the bottom of the leaf doesn't catch the threshold or the hallway tiles;
• no foam is visible outside or inside, and the architraves sit tight to the wall;
• there are as many keys as the certificate lists, and the construction cylinder has been replaced with the permanent one.